Prime Minister Julia Gillard told media the RBA is independent and must be seen to be that way.
She said the government would give the RBA the option of lowering interest rates by providing a budget surplus to buffer against international financial downturns.
"It is the right time to return to surplus...it will also give the Reserve Bank more room to move [to lower rates] should it decide to do so," said Ms Gillard.
Earlier, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott seized on comments made by Ms Gillard, linking a budget surplus to lower interest rates.
He described the comments as an admission of failure.
"The prime minister has admitted that her economic policy for the last four years has been a failure," he told reporters on the Gold Coast.
"If it is so important to get rates down, what does it say about the four biggest deficits in Australian history?" he added.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne said, while Ms Gillard should not put pressure on the RBA, the government had been backed into a corner by the opposition.
"Everybody knows that this is all about the fact that the prime minister said in 2009 that the budget would return to surplus this year," she told reporters in Sydney.
"She made an emphatic statement and because we have had such a strong political campaign run by the coalition, and people I would call the Ju-liar brigade, she is not in a position politically to change her mind."
Senator Milne said making the spending cuts necessary to return the budget to surplus would result in job losses.
"The Greens have said all along that we think it would be great if interest rates were cut but this is a decision for the RBA," she said.
Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinis said the government was creating an atmosphere of political pressure on the bank to cut rates "faster and harder" that it might want otherwise.
"They shouldn't be conned by the prime minister into thinking that she is going to deliver such a razzle dazzle budget until they've actually seen it," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
The bank's cash rate now is 4.25 per cent.
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said returning the budget to surplus was about trajectory.
In November's mid-year budget update, Treasury forecast a $1.5 billion surplus for 2012/13, a turnaround from an expected $40 billion plus deficit for this financial year.
"It's about direction, it's about momentum," Mr Bradbury said, adding a budget surplus was not just a political commitment but an economic commitment as well.
A leading Liberal senator believes the Reserve Bank should wait until it sees the federal budget before cutting its cash rate.
The bank's board will make a decision on May 1, a week before the budget is handed down.
